Destiny

Try to live your life and be happy with your destiny, acquiring inner peace by love and good deeds.
(Marcus Aurelius)
5 April 2016

Patience

Patience is necessary in this life because so much of life is fraught with adversity. No matter how hard we try, our lives will never be without strife and grief. Thus, we should not strive for a peace that is without temptation, or for a life that never feels adversity. Peace is not found by escaping temptations, but by being tried by them. We will have discovered peace when we have been tried and come through the trial of temptation.

(Thomas ‘a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, found in, Flowers Along the Path, p. 25, by Esther Carls Dodgen)

6 January 2016

Easier Said Than Done

PEACE

When confronted with conflict, we can choose to feel peace. 

When attacked in any way, we can make the decision not to fight.

We can come from a place of restraint and 

not act out in any hostile way, 

even if we want to. 

We do not have to act out our thoughts or emotions. 

We can pause and wait 

until we can come from our volition, 

from our choice.

We can 

choose peace.

Today we can wait until all negative and hostile feelings lose their power over us before we say or do anything. We can take the time to breathe in peace and love, no matter what is going on in our lives.

(after Time For Joy by Ruth Fishel, 4 October)

******

It's been a good week for purchasing used CDs for $1.00 each.

On Wednesday at the double Thrift Store I bought five:

1. The Original Folkways Recordings of Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley (2 CD set)
2. Sara Evans - No Place That Far
3. Sara Evans - Restless
4. Alan Jackson - Homemade Mix

On Saturday at the Holy Redeemer Fall Rummage sale I bought seventeen:

1. Time-Life Treasure of Bluegrass - America's Music  (2 CD set)
2. The Maddox Brothers and Rose - Live on the Radio
3. The Skillet Lickers - Old Time Fiddle Tunes and Songs From North Georgia
4. Ernest V. Stoneman - Edison Recordings 1928
5. Steve Martin - The Crow
6. Eddy Arnold - Greatest Hits
7. Chuck Mangione - Compact Jazz
8. Various Artists - Country Gospel (3 CD set)
9. Various Artists - Guideposts Presents - Then Sings My Soul (4 CD set)
10. Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder - Soldier of the Cross
11. Emmy Lou Harris - The Very Best Of - Heartaches & Highways

Dick Henthorn

15 November 2015

Making Peace With Things

If you want to make peace with the things in your life, you must first understand and make peace with yourself. There is no other way.
(Cindy Glovinsky, Making Peace With The Things In Your Life, Introduction, p. xiv)
22 March 2015

MYOB

My friend, there are many things in life that you must simply pass by. If you wish to grow in your spiritual life, you must not allow yourself to be caught up in the workings of the world; you must find time alone, away from noise and confusion, aware from the allure of power and wealth. You must also turn a deaf ear to many things, and think instead on those things that contribute to your peace.  It is  better to avert your eyes from what distracts you from your purpose. Quietly leave each person to his own opinion, and avoid contentious bickering. If you stand in good stead with God and respect His ways, you will more easily be able to do this.
(Thomas 'a Kempis, The Imitation Of Christ, Book 3, Chapter 44)
10 February 2015

Suffering

As long as suffering is hard for you and you seek to avoid it, all will go wrong with you, and the very trouble that you run from will hound you wherever you go. If you resign yourself to what must be - that is, that we all must suffer and die -- you will feel much better, and you will find peace.
(Thomas 'a Kempis, The Imitation Of Christ, Book 2, Chapter 12)
18 October 2014

The Past

View from a window at the DC Convention Center

You can never fully enjoy the present if you're bitter about the past. Instead of living in the past, make peace with it ... and move on.
(100 Days Of Prayer For Women, p. 34)

Dick Henthorn
4 September 2014

Growth

... growth is related directly to our success in looking at and releasing our history. Like barnacles on a ship's hull, our past wrongdoings can prevent us from sailing smoothly to a life fulfilled with peace.
(Twelve Steps For Christians, p. 129)
21 June 2014

Sit Quietly

I sit quietly and allow my thoughts to pass. I imagine that I am a calm lake. I allow disturbing thoughts to drift away like clouds across the sky. I allow comfort and peace to surround and penetrate my body.
(Introduction to June in The Color Of Light by Perry Tilleraas)
17 June 2014

Patience

Patience is very necessary for each of us, because many troubles befall us in this life. No matter what we do to live in peace, life cannot be without struggle and sorrow.
(after Thomas 'a Kempis, The Imitation Of Christ, Book 3, Chapter 12)
26 May 2014

Peace Of Mind

When something robs you of your peace of mind, ask yourself if it is worth the energy you are expending on it. If not, then put it out of your mind in an act of discipline. Every time the thought of it returns, refuse it.
(Kay Arthur in 100 Days Of Prayer For Women)
13 April 2014

Life Choices

Backyard Flowers - Mr. Dickie

If your life choices are not providing you with personal feelings of peace and fulfillment, then you must reconsider why you are making the choices to live out your life in ways that are simply permitting you to exist rather than to feel a sense of mission and purpose.
(Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, The Sky's The Limit, p. 31)
23 March 2014

Peace

Try to be at peace with yourself and those around you - family members, friends, co-workers, neighbors and strangers - and to show patience for your own sake and theirs.  And remember to be gentle and accepting of yourself as well.
(The Christophers, Three Minutes A Day, Vol. 44, 8 December)
22 December 2013

War & Peace

(Art by DJBoraP)

Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed. (UNESCO Constitution in Pocket Positives, no page numbering) 28 April 2013

Be All You Can Be

• Spread peace, not discord, wherever you go.
• Try to be part of the cure of every situation, not part of the problem.
• Always try to build up, never to tear down.
• Show others by your example that happiness comes from living the right way.
• The power of your example is greater than the power of what you say.

(after Twenty-Four Hours A Day, 23 December)
23 December 2012

Behave Yourself

Photo by Mr. Dickie: Rose bush in our backyard

During the day you should behave in such a way that you can sleep at night in peace, and in your youth you should behave in such a way that you can live in your old age in peace. (Indian Proverb in A Calendar Of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy, 13 December) 17 December 2012

Proving The Point

You have survived life-threatening, life-altering crisis and challenges to prove only one point: that you can and have survived! Be at peace with the way you proved the point. (Iyanla Vanzant, Until Today!, 1 December) 3 December 2012

Peace On Earth

People of planet Earth are on a very low level of development. Every day in the newspapers you read the news of military treaties, about the preparations for war, for mass manslaughter. People do not understand that the life of each man is his own personal private property. (Camille Flammarion)

The majority of people now understand not only the uselessness, but also the stupidity and cruelty of any war.

War is murder. No matter how many people get together to commit murder or what they call themselves, murder is the worst sin in the world.

Until such time as people reject the power of government to govern, to tax, to legislate, and to punish, war will never stop. War is the consequence of the government's power.
(All quotations from A Calendar of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy, 25 November)
25 November 2012

Support Peace

Refuse to say anything or do anything that will not create or support peace, healing and love. (Iyanla Vanzant, Until Today! 12 September) 23 November 2012

High Road

The high road is any action taken or any word spoken with the intention of restoring peace, invoking healing or advancing love. (Iyanla Vanzant, Until Today! 12 September) 1 October 2012